Pegasus series

[dragonqueen]

Has anyone read these, or her other Talent books, I found them really good, but especially Pegasus in Space, but that's just a personal interest since I love astronomy.What's your favoriate one?

 

[Princess Ivy]

i love the tower and hive series which was written first. pegasus was the filler in afterwards. of all of the anne maccaffrey novels, these are my favorites.
I have recently managed to get the full set. from the Rowan to the Tower and Hive and the three prequals, pegasus novels.

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

yeah, have to agree with Princess Ivy - for me the best one was The Rowan.
Also, I could never get into her Dragon books either!

 

[Princess Ivy]

oh, i did love the dragon riders series as well. got most of them, with the exception of the master harper book and including todd maccafreys collaboration on dragons kin

 

[dragonqueen]

The Rowan's excellent for when you can't read a full book, I don't know how many times I've been stuck in a library without a book and no time to read one, so I pick up the Rowan and just read the first section, it's really good

 

[Amber]

I enjoyed the talent books especially Pegasus in Space, and Damia

 

[Princess Ivy]

the sheer psositvity of the work is what always encourages me.

 

[Rosemary]

I thought the Tower and Hive series was well written but I don't think I would read them again. Whereas her Dragons of Pern books must be my all time favourites, even The Master Harper.

I quite enjoyed Pegasus In Space but I personally thought it was not on a par with The Dragons. My taste in books leans more towards the Fantasy side, as in Dragons and Magic.

 

[Princess Ivy]

and yet, the dragons are genetic constructs and the major them of the dragon books is the collonisation and protection of a colonised world. very much sci-fiction with hints of fantasy.
devils advocate here, i do enjoy the dragons.

 

[shandril]

i loved the "rowen" but id have to say "damia" was my favourite i havent had a chance to get into her "dragons of pern" its on my to do list... didnt mind "acorna"...i think she may have wrote that one with somebody..[its been awhile]..so many books....i cant remember them all..

all of the tower and the hive series was good well worth reading

 

[Thadlerian]

As To Ride Pegasus is the only Talent and the only McCaffrey I've read, it may be that my understanding of the matters is rather limited, but I couldn't really enjoy the book.

The idea itself is interesting enough: People with supernatural psychic abilities organizing themselves to do good. But instead of writing a consistent story with characters I can relate to, the book takes on a rather episodic feel, where each character is only used to personate a single characteristic, which makes it seem like a strictly informative text rather than a story being told.

Worse, as the story progresses, I get the feeling that A. McCaffrey is trying to push her own political agenda. There may be some truth in the idea; that talented individuals are being stigmatized and hindered in the society, but, really, I get the point early, so there's no use repeating it all through the book. There is simply no end to the difficulties the honest, virtuous protagonists have to face from the distrustful, jealous, and, most loudly emphazised, mediocre "ordinary people". The story is going to great lenghts to have me sympathize with the "good" charatcers and hate the "bad", which just hurts it.

Thus, I feel no enthusiasm for other books in the series, as I have a feeling there will be more of the same.

 

[Cheryl]

The Pegasus half of the Talent series is very different from the Rowan/Damia/Tower&Hive half. You might perhaps appreciate the Pegasus books more if you had read the others first, which are set much further into the future when "talents" are an accepted part of society. Then it's interesting to see how the world progressed from disbelief in these sorts of abilities to them be accepted and having various professional protections. The repetition you felt in that first Pegasus book is in large part due to it actually being a collection of four short stories (three previously published, one written for the book), which were not edited from their original stand-alone publication.


Princess Ivy, the Tower and the Hive series wasn't written first, at least not precisely. The short stories which were turned into Rowan and Damia did come first, but the first book published was a Pegasus book, and that was nearly two decades before The Rowan came out. The actual publication order of the books and the stories is as follows (Pegasus in blue; T&H in red)


Apr 1959 - "Lady in a Tower" (later part of The Rowan)
Jan 1969 - "A Meeting of Minds" (later part of Damia)
Feb 1969 - "A Womanly Talent" (later part of To Ride Pegasus)
later 1969 - "Apple" (later part of To Ride Pegasus)
Jul 1973 - "A Bridle for Pegasus" (later part of To Ride Pegasus)
Aug 1973 - To Ride Pegasus
Nov 1990 - Pegasus in Flight
Nov 1990 - The Rowan
1992 - Damia
Jan 1993 Damia's Children
Feb 1994 - Lyon's Pride
1999 - The Tower and the Hive
Apr 2000 Pegasus in Space

 

[Princess Ivy]

to me, the lady in the tower and a meeting of minds were such integral parts of damia and rowen that i've always considered them as the first books. they are the reason that i got the rowan and then read further.
and yes, pegasus is very different, focusing more on talent accross the board, while tower and hive does focus on port and path only. but in re-reading the tower and hives, it jumped out that the parasycic center still operates on earth, as a separte entityh from FT&T. to me that explained the difference. two branches of the same thing:0

 

[Cheryl]

Amazing the things you notice/realize when you reread the books again and again and again.

I should probably go back and read the original short stories by themselves. I believe I read them first, as they're in Get Off the Unicorn which I read some 15 years ago. I didn't really understand or enjoy most of the stories then, as I hadn't read anything besides Pern before that. When I discovered and read the Talent books several years after that, I don't know that I connected them to what I had read before.

I'd enjoy it if Anne wrote a book in the timeframe of the Rowan/Damia books focussing on a different talent from the 'port and 'paths -- it'd be interesting to see how a different ability has developed into a more mature career just as p&p has.

 

[Princess Ivy]

well, with things such as he precogs/clairvoiants and finders etc... there is a very specific niche market. although i'd have thought that a major employer would have been ft&t. to keep an eye on contracts and primes

 

[Guardian]

I've read all of the Talent Series and the Tower and the Hive Series. I really enjoyed them. Would anyone like to see them as a movie or tv series,..she says as she backs out of the room very quietly....

 

[weaveworld]

I read 'To ride Pegasus' once in the dentist (waiting room that is), it was good, what I read but I never read the rest.

 

[Guardian]

I enjoyed the series better once I had read the three Pegasus books, but I must say my favorite are the first two books of the Talent Series..Rowan/Damia. I also like the fact that you get a little romance and you are smothered in it.

 

[alicebandassassin]

i also love the talent series i aslso like the linking in with books but its also good that you can pick up one of the books and it will stand alone as a really good read.

 

[manephelien]

The Talents are among my favorite Anne McCaffrey books. At one point they were the story for me, and I even went so far as to write a partial character index.

Shamelessly blowing my own trumpet here: Towerdex
It's rather bare, as I did it as a course project for an html/css programming course.